Questions, questions.
RLE.
It would appear to be cheating now but I could tell you even when drunk that it is ‘spigot in line with the plunger, plunger in line with (or slightly recessed) the housing’. I also fully understand why that is important and I knew it before Mike Harland’s accident.
I would be genuinely shocked if 38/40 of my FJ colleagues honestly did not know that when questioned.
BA/BY
With regards to the pin in whilst taxying thing (I haven’t read the book and I’m not likely to, so quoting page numbers won’t help) I’ve never had a problem with it. Clearly some people have and the latest modification to the ejection seat firing handle housing has taken care of that.
Remember that lots of things went wrong for Sean and I’m not going to get drawn into any public conversations about the incident.
Please don’t think for one second that ejection seat safety is not taken very seriously nowadays. I can assure you it always has been on every unit that I have served on in three different Air Forces.
BV